FCC to Testify on Telecom Tactics

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FCC to Testify on Telecom Tactics

Federal regulators are due to give Congress a broad overview of their plans to rewrite rules for local phone service, high-speed Internet access and a host of other issues that will dominate the U.S. telecommunications landscape for years to come.

While the five FCC commissioners are not expected to provide firm details, industry analysts say their testimony before the Senate Commerce Committee could provide valuable hints on new rules the agency plans to craft over the next few months.

FCC commissioners are likely to find themselves facing questions on everything from media ownership limits to spectrum management, but local telephone and broadband competition are expected to top the agenda.

The agency is expected to decide next month whether to ease a rule requiring local telephone giants such as Verizon (VZ) and BellSouth (BLS) to rent their local network equipment to competitors like AT&T (T) and smaller upstarts.

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New viruses coming: Computer users should brace for a new onslaught of viruses this year, especially worms deployed into instant-messaging systems that allow users to chat quickly and cheaply across the Web, an antivirus expert said.

Sophos, the fourth-largest antivirus solutions provider, said it expects more viruses and their cousin, the self-propagating worm, to infect computers in 2003, but their occurrence was not expected to accelerate significantly.

Sophos also expects to see a rise in the number of so-called "backdoor Trojans," which open holes in operating systems enabling hackers to implant remote access tools so they can operate an infected computer remotely.

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Intel slashes prices: Intel is lowering prices by as much as 38 percent on some microprocessors designed for laptop computers, as the company prepares to introduce a new line later this year.

Under new prices effective Sunday, Intel (INTC) offered reductions ranging from 10 percent on a Celeron microprocessor running at 1.8 GHz to 38 percent on a Pentium 4 chip that runs at 2.2 GHz.

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CNET reduces staff: Seeing little hope for better times in 2003, the online technology news provider CNET said it's firing 80 more employees – about 5 percent of its work force.

The cuts mark the fourth time in less than two years that CNET (CNET) has made significant payroll reductions to adjust for a business slowdown triggered by the high-tech industry's nagging slump.

With fewer tech companies spending on Internet advertising, CNET is expected to report 2002 revenue of around $230 million. That's about 13 percent below the company's revenue of $264 million in 2000.

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Bulletproof chips: Transmeta (TMTA) announced plans to offer a processor with embedded security features, as the semiconductor design company races against its much-larger rival Intel in the market for chips custom-made for mobile computing.

A new version of Transmeta's Crusoe TM5800 processor with the built-in security features will be available in the second half of the year, said Walter Sun, a senior product manager at Transmeta.

In September, Intel announced plans to offer security technology built into its microprocessors, code-named LaGrande, within the next few years.

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Enix sweetens deal: Bowing to pressure, Japan's Enix, known for its blockbuster "Dragon Quest" computer games, said it would sweeten a proposed merger deal with rival Square by offering more of its own shares for the maker of the "Final Fantasy" game series.

Enix, responding to pressure from Square's top shareholder, Masafumi Miyamoto, said it would raise the share swap ratio on the deal by about 5 percent, valuing it at about $850 million.

Miyamoto, Square's former president, owns a 40 percent stake in the company he founded in 1986.